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(1923–98). The first U.S. astronaut to travel in space was Alan B. Shepard, Jr. His historic flight in 1961 energized U.S. space efforts and made him a national hero.

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., was born on November 18, 1923, in East Derry, New Hampshire. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1944 and served in the Pacific during World War II onboard the destroyer Cogswell. Shepard earned his naval aviator wings in 1947, qualified as a test pilot in 1951, and experimented with high-altitude aircraft, in-flight fueling systems, and landings on angled carrier decks. In 1957 he graduated from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1959 he became one of the original seven astronauts chosen for the U.S. Mercury program by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

JSC/NASA

On May 5, 1961, Shepard made a 15-minute suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 spacecraft, which reached an altitude of 115 miles (185 kilometers). The flight came 23 days after Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin became the first person to travel in space.

Shepard was selected as command pilot for the first manned Gemini mission, Gemini 3, but he was grounded in 1964 because of Ménière disease, an ailment that affects the inner ear. In 1969 he underwent corrective surgery that allowed him to return to full flight status.

Johnson Space Center/NASA

In 1971 Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 Moon landing mission, with crew members Stuart A. Roosa and Edgar D. Mitchell. Near the end of his Moon walk, Shepard—an avid golfer—swung at two golf balls with a makeshift six-iron club as a playful demonstration for live television cameras of the weak lunar gravity.

Shepard headed NASA’s astronaut office from 1963 to 1969 and then from 1971 to 1974, when he retired from the U.S. Navy as a rear admiral and from the NASA space program to undertake a career in private business in Texas. He received numerous awards, including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Shepard also coauthored, with fellow Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton, Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon (1994). He died in Monterey, California, on July 21, 1998.

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